Oscillating Brow Stuff

Destroying other people's work

2012-02-08T10:49:00.002Z

Occasionally I feel the need to muck about with music software (specifically Buzz) and at some point a couple of years ago, after hearing the beauty of Jack Fallows' musical project 'Echo Ave.', I decided I would try ruining one of his tracks.

Many thanks to Jack for not shooting me after hearing the results of my amateurish remixing.

So, here are my efforts so far - a bit rough but I guess maybe worth a listen if you like messy electro-folky type stuff.

You should definitely check out the original (and the other Echo Ave. tracks, particularly Sequence of Events (Jan 13) - the best love song with comics as the central metaphor EVER!).

I may or may not at some point dig out some of the older music that I've done in the past and bung it up online too.

Really REALLY stupid

2012-01-23T10:46:00.000Z

My last comic, The Device (a proper 24-hour comic that I put out a little over a year ago), wasn't a massive success.

For something entirely done in twenty four hours, I did think it had a little depth and cleverness and was vaguely proud of it, but everyone else seemed to be totally baffled (or disinterested) by it.

More recently a couple of people have said nice things about it (suggesting that it's not out of the realm of possibility that some people do 'get' it), but still, the initial reaction concerned me enough to re-evaluate what I do comics about.

Anyway, after a bit of sulky/lazy hiatus, I've done a new Tales of Extraordinariness with the intention of it being the stupidest and most pointless publication EVER. If you like the sound of a very small comic featuring: stupidness and action (plus maybe spaceships, tea, showdowns and more stupidty), you can get a hold of Tales of Extraordinariness #3: 'Stupid Action Comic' very soon.

Everyone loves comics

2012-01-20T18:32:00.000Z

A very rough poster idea from back in the Canny Comic Con planning stages last year.

One of those year round-up things, except rubbish

2012-01-03T15:37:00.001Z

It's that time isn't it? After all the tinselled gluttony (and the accompanying merciful break from having to look at the internet), it's now another new and rubbish year and one cannot escape seeing that over the festive period everyone has done a blog post describing all the amazing stuff they've done in the last year - and truly, it seems that everyone has done some properly amazing stuff. Bah. It is awful. Absolute wretchedness. To have such go-getting talented associates, all doing productive and exciting things with their existences only provides an increasingly stark contrast to one's own extensive deficiencies and failings in that regard. In 2011, it seems I basically did nothing. Aside from a few doodles and whatnot, the fundamental fact is: I printed no new comics at all. AT ALL. Not even a new Paper Jam anthology. Plus: no music, no film, no prose. I don't think I even read/watched/listened to anything good. In fact I don't think I even wasted it on TV or xbox. Holy crap, what was I doing? What was I doing? Where did the year go? Come to that, where did the last five years go? Actually the last decade?

Well, bah. I hope if anyone is unfortunate enough to stumble across this deluge of self-pity and whinging, at least it might provide some small measure of schadenfreude, as I am certain you have done more with 2011 than I did.

2012 promises to be rubbish too.

On Canny Ex(po), Man

2011-12-15T16:31:00.002Z

On 10th December, there was this thing, the Canny Comic Con; it was in Newcastle City Library; it was AMAZING. I had my comics on the communal table, manned by the superb Paper Jam Comics Collective crew. I only sold one comic. But that's because most of my comics are stupid awkward prices which would have messed up the float and whatnot so I only put The Device up for sale. Instead, afterwards I gave away my stock to some mates to say thanks for all the effort that they'd put into helping with the festival. In many ways they deserved something better.

Sugar Glider

2011-09-05T17:14:00.000+01:00

So, PJCC stalwarts Daniel Clifford and Gary Bainbridge have just released the second issue of their gritty Newcastle-set superhero story Sugar Glider. It's great, you should buy it. A while back, I mentioned that I'd done some fan art, showing gutsy protagonist Suzie (perhaps after dispensing some vigilante justice), for the fan art page. I never posted it here, so here it is:

And much as it was an opportunity to practice and improve upon my neanderthal-level grasp of computery art stuff (it took HOURS to get the transparency on the damn goggles but not the cracks), the original rough sketch is perhaps still a bit better, so in honour of Sugar Glider #2, here it is:

Immateria material

2011-08-16T16:45:00.004+01:00

So, Promethea (by Alan Moore, J.H. Williams III et al) is flipping tremendous. I recently re-read it all and wrote a short review for Readers of the Lost Art explaining why it's so tremendous. You should perhaps read this Promethea review now.

The dead may walk but I prefer a pony

2011-08-03T09:07:00.005+01:00

Anyway, this was done a while back, I think in response to a comment about how the lead actor in The Walking Dead television series is (for a certain generation of the UK audience) inescapably associated with his his role in 90's twentysomething drama series This Life.

Miscellaneous doodles

2011-08-02T11:23:00.005+01:00

Just a few little bits and bobs I got round to scanning. All doodled for no particular reason.

A sort of barbarian fellow with an axe?

Some sort of sports fan bird?

And some sort of rat ogre?

And why not, eh?

Inspired by myth and legend AND CRISPS

2011-07-05T08:57:00.007+01:00

Couple of doodles I've finally scanned.

Trolls eh? They're great. Kind of big and weird and melancholy. I like them.

Also, at the last Paper Jam meeting, someone announced that they were transfixed by the picture on the side of a certain tube-based potato snack container. Thinking about it, a strange floating head that claims you will have no will of your own once the seal is broken is kind of intimidating.

Once you pop, you can't stop... THE TERROR!

To the batcave!

2011-04-14T13:30:00.003+01:00

Everyone loves drawing Batman. I certainly do. This is probably the last doodle for a little while until I can be bothered to do some more scanning.

He has the power! (Of punching!)

2011-04-13T10:05:00.004+01:00

Another doodle, this time with some shoddy digital colouring attempts: the oafish self-proclaimed "most powerful man in the universe" He-Man and incompetent elf-thing assistant Orko. Skeletor was always cooler.

A somewhat stroppy goth chap

2011-04-12T10:43:00.003+01:00

A quick doodle with rudimentary computery stuff done to it. Dream from Sandman - he is a bit of a gloomy fellow.

Items of recent newsworthiness

2011-03-18T16:13:00.010Z

There are several important (well, not that important) items of Oscillating Brow news. Check it, yo:

Numero uno, the Paper Jam Comics Collective are presenting an exhibition at the Made In Newcastle shop/gallery running from the 19th-27th March. It's partly the 'official' launch of the most recent PJCC anthology, History... And That, and partly just a general showcase of PJCC members work - so expect a mix of material with a loose history/comic theme, all of which will be tremendous (I've been hard at work on a mind-blowing piece made specially for the exhibition called The Present And The Future Then The Past And The Present). The exhibition is free and if you like anything you see, there will be many prints and comics (including all of my current publications) for sale, as well as some of the original art itself.

Numbero deux: despite being hampered by hastily composed theme music by me, the unstoppable juggernaut of small press comics reviewing that is the Small Press Big Mouth podcast, hosted by the gorgeous Stacey Whittle and the lovely Lee Grice, has been nominated in the 'Best SF Podcast' category of SFX magazine's Blog Awards. Clearly they recognise excellent theme music when they hear it! And excellent witty talking or whatever it is they do. Vote for it now!

Numero C: There has been drawing going on. North-east superhero comic 'Sugar Glider' by Daniel Clifford and Gary Bainbridge is ruddy good and you should buy both the first issue and the brand new 'Sugar Glider Stories' anthology immediately. The character design is great and a bunch of talented people have been doing fan art. For a bit of a laugh, I did too. You can see all of the fan art, including mine, here.

I really like the comic's semi-realistic tone and just how tough the central character comes across as being - not so much physical toughness (though obviously that's required, being an urban vigilante and all) but mental toughness; she has tremendous grit and determination to keep doing what she's doing without help or support. A lot of the other fan art is amazing and far superior to my own inept efforts, but none of it quite seemed to capture that toughness, so I tried to do something that did. I even had a bit of a play around trying to add digital colour.

Anyway, there might be a few more pictures from me at some point, either posted here or on the PJCC 'Paper Jams' blog (I already have a little bit of stuff up on there), but don't hold your breath.

It is probably educational

2010-11-18T12:05:00.004Z

This weekend sees Newcastle's Paper Jam Comics Collective turning up in force at Leeds' Thought Bubble festival comic convention thing and my word, they have a lot of new stuff for sale (including my own new pamphlet).

Amongst the great deal of exciting new things is the group's latest 'And That' anthology History... And That (see the amazing cover above). The And Thats have been going from strength-to-strength, and this latest one, with a loose history theme, is full of dang good work. It also features an Oscillating Brow one-pager called 'For The Record', which, by examining the start of recorded history, examines the very concept of history and its inherent subjectivity - and is also quite silly.

Amongst the other tremendous gear on show will be A4 Comics Presents, an all ages anthology of great quality put together by mastermind Daniel 'comicsdaniel' Clifford, that features a story 'Trainee Space Chef', written by (former chief of the Oscillating Brow Comics writing team) Quinston Q. Blowfish and drawn by the supremely talented Martin Newman (king of 24HCD Newcastle and Project Z main man). It features: Action! Adventure! Cooking! You should check it out.

A thing which does things

2010-11-18T11:45:00.005Z

The brand new and biggest ever Oscillating Brow comic will shortly be released on an unsuspecting public.

So what is The Device? The product of my efforts at 24-Hour Comic Day, it's 24 pages of A6 black & white comic. A little story which crosses the boundaries of time and space to tell a tale of human aspiration and failure and success, exploring the human condition. Or something like that.

It features several little cameos. First person to spot them wins respect if not a prize.

The Device will cost a £1 and will be first available from the Paper Jam Comics Collective table at the Thought Bubble festival in Leeds this weekend (also available will be my previous 'works': Cat and Tales of Extraordinariness #1 & #2). Subsequently it will hopefully be available from Travelling Man Newcastle and various other fairs/cons/etc.

Take that official 24HCD!

2010-10-04T16:35:00.003+01:00

It was 24-hour comics day recently, and I did one! Despite some unexpected clamouring for me to do a sequel to my previous sort-of-'24-hour'-comic, I tried to take it fairly seriously this time.

Anyway, it went alright. My full report can be read here, and the comic, The Device, should hopefully be available fairly soon.

You will like this

2010-10-01T14:53:00.007+01:00

People who like comics-related podcasts should be aware of an exciting new podcast on the Geek Syndicate network called 'If You Like This'.

It takes particular books/TV/films/games/genres/whatever, and recommends comics that fans of the first thing might like.

I will admit to a tiny amount of input into this wondrous new audio delight: I've done the short theme music for it. This is the second podcast that has been blighted by Oscillating Brow music, the other being the equally excellent Small Press Big Mouth (also available on the Geek Syndicate network).

Anyway, anyone who likes things and might like to like comics that are like the things they like will almost certainly like If You Like This, so should check it out now.

The first episode is looking at stuff for people who like either The Wire and/or Boston Legal, so the recommendations have a political/law & order flavour. All bias aside, it's a dang fine show and you would be mad to miss it.

Leeds Alternative Comics Fair

2010-09-21T09:43:00.008+01:00

Last weekend saw the first Leeds Alternative Comics Fair. It was in a pub ('A Nation of Shopkeepers') in Leeds, wherein a select bunch of small press comics producers sold their wares in a lovely relaxed atmosphere. Paper Jam were amongst them, or at least Gary Bainbridge, Andy Waugh, Paul Thompson and Ben Clark were, I just turned up and insisted on dumping my shoddy comics on the table too.

Anyway, it was thoroughly enjoyable, I bought a bunch of comics, the pub did good beer and food, and I made a brief trip to the wondrous indie-centric comic shop OK Comics during the afternoon. Plenty of comics were sold (even one or two Oscillating Brow ones) and a pretty good time seemed to be had by all. For more info, see the write-ups from organisers Hugh Raine & Steve Tillotson, and Stacey Whittle on the SFX magazine blog.

The future is somehow not what was expected

2010-08-03T16:23:00.003+01:00

Can you believe it has been over ten years since all that business about the millenium?

Are we in some futuristic utopia? Have things got better and more wondrous? I think most people would concur with an answer of 'not really'.

The inexorable rise of Twitter and Facebook and suchlike seems the main product of a decade that was meant to be about stepping boldly forward into the future but has just instead just seen humans getting even stupider.

It was somehow fitting that the decade ended with a track that was recorded in 1992 by Rage Against The Machine as the Christmas pop charts number one, a final feeble pop-cultural wail of disappointment and disillusionment from a populace not sure of anything except that they'd been led to believe that the future was somehow meant to be better.

Anyway, this is all only vaguely connected to the new Oscillating Brow comic, which is much more microcosmic and frankly silly.

Tales of Extraordinariness #2: 'So Much For The Noughties' is a very small and inexpert comic that can now be purchased from Travelling Man Newcastle (and possibly the Made In Newcastle shop and various fairs/cons/whatever in the future), probably for around 30 pence.

Take that, world of gallery art

2010-07-30T13:16:00.010+01:00

The Paper Jam Comics Collective released their latest anthology, Art ...And That, at a whirlwind evening of arts excitement in Durham last week organised by the excellent people of the DLI Museum & Gallery and Empty Shop.

A proper write up with photos and everything by the illustrious Andy Waugh can be read here.

Art ...And That was commissioned for the event and was put together very quickly (by Mr Waugh with cover by Mr Bainbridge), yet thanks to the increasingly skillful PJCC contributors, it is full of top-notch work. The concept was to talk about a particular fairly well-known artist or piece of 'gallery art' via the medium of comics - and some genuinely thought-provoking work came out of it.

My own piece, 'De/Re-Recontextualisation', was borne of a profound distaste for recent nonsense such as Icelandic "artist" Erro copying Brian Bolland Tank Girl art and claiming it as his own. That kind of thing seems to pretty much sum up a certain segment of contemporary 'gallery artists' and their smug, self-congratulatory, meaningless, creatively-bankrupt attitudes, particularly towards 'low art' like comics. Bolland's riposte (in the link above) is totally spot on and is essential reading for anyone with an interest in the place of comics in the Art world.

It's not always so simple though. I've always liked Roy Lichtenstein's work with its tongue-in-cheek hyper-melodrama (plus I suppose the concept of recontextualisation was more novel in the Pop Art era), but still the inherent imbalances about credit for such work prove difficult to digest. Anyway, enough blathering, you should make up your own minds. Great artists apparently don't need to explain their work, and I won't either. Suffice to say, the anthology is smashing and anyone with an interest in art or comics should purchase it.

Take that, world of aerial toy construction!

2010-07-05T13:15:00.007+01:00

Paper Jam, after having been at Durham's EGO Festival of alternativeness the previous weekend, then appeared at the Sunderland Friendship and Kite Festival last weekend.

A plethora of comics were sold at both events, including several copies of the glorious Space Monkey (an anthology aimed at kids, inspired by the fact that at same event last year, the collective had nothing really suitable for a younger audience - so it was satisfying to see the plan vindicated) and, bafflingly, several copies of my own Tales of Extraordinariness and Cat (the poor fools).

The festival itself was good fun, involving kites and crafty activities for kids, plus various things for sale - in the tent where Paper Jam was at, there were vendors selling cacti, cupcakes, and cuddly knitted creatures amongst many other things. Indeed, through this mixture of coolness, links were forged with the Newcastle Craft Mafia, resulting in Paper Jam joining their exciting new shop-based venture Made In Newcastle, which launches shortly - check it out!

In other news, Paper Jam is lining up TWO fantastic new anthologies: History And That, and Art And That, both of which will be marred by the inclusion of work from me. Also Tales of Extraordinariness #2 is pretty much done, and since I've also run out of copies of Cat and Tales of Extraordinariness #1, there may have to be a printing session soon to get this tat made and available to you, the bad-comics-buying public.

Viva the medium-sized press

2010-04-16T18:18:00.006+01:00

Paper Jam Comics Collective was on tour last weekend at: the Washington Arts Centre - in Washington! P.R.E.S.S. had put on a groovy little get-together celebrating the wonder of small press things. Read the official Paper Jam write up! DO IT NOW!

It was a nice mixed gathering, plenty of local prose and poetry publishers vending their fine wares, but also a chunky comics contingent: aside from Paper Jam and the remnants of the There Goes Tokyo small press stockpile, there were also Unico comics and London-based WAW+P (thoroughly nice folks).

It was a nice do, and seeing quite interesting things being done that experimented with the physical nature of print publications was quite inspiring. From books that were essentially sculptures on one stall (that I'm too rubbish to track a link to), to WAW+P's ambitious Solipsistic Pop anthologies, to Paper Jam's Mike D who provided a tremendously fun zine trail, it was all quite thought-provoking about what the printed format can do.

That said, my next publication is still almost certainly going to be an A6 photocopied shambles, but it now might be ironic.

High times in the highlands

2010-03-30T19:55:00.006+01:00

This weekend was the third Hi-Ex Highland Comic Expo and after having unexpectedly been gifted use of a table (from Omnivistascope) Paper Jam were there selling comics. Well, the wondrous mechahumanoid Paul Thompson was, and I helped out a little bit.

The whole shinding was really nice, great panels, socialising, it was all really really nice. More importantly: Oscillating Brow Comics had two titles for sale and even sold some! Incredible! Yes, there were a few copies of Tales of Extraordinariness #1, and yes, the brand new sort-of-24-hour-comic CAT was launched on an unsuspecting public.

In addition to all the fun and beer, there was even some work got done on Tales of Extraordinariness #2. You have been warned.

Anyways, CAT should hopefully be available elsewhere, possibly Travelling Man Newcastle, for a mighty 40p sometime soon, and big thumbs up to anyone involved in any way with Hi-Ex, it was ace.

Meow

2010-03-30T12:59:00.009+01:00

Yes, the wait is over, there is a new Oscillating Brow comic. It is a bit small, but never mind.

Several plucky comic-makers from the Paper Jam Comics Collective did a 24 hour comic. The challenge they faced was: to start from nothing (no preparation allowed) and draw a complete 24-page comic within 24 hours (following the original Scott McCloud rules). They succeeded and are all tremendous admirable people and I salute them.

For people less keen to stay up all night there was a social 'Drink and Draw' event in the evening which I was at. After having said hello to those brave souls slaving away over their 24-hour epics, I decided that in an act of solidarity and/or smartarsery, I would do a 24 hour comic just at the Drink and Draw. It is very small (A8 landscape I think) and is about a cat and other things which rhyme with cat and it's called, somewhat unimaginatively, 'CAT'.

If you like such things, you may be able to purchase CAT soon (see next post).

In other news, later that weekend, the legendary Alan Moore rolled into town and did a wacky AV event with several collaborators entitled An English Journey Revisited. It was a bit noisy but impressively odd. Mr Moore was as hairy as he is in your dreams.

Comic-to-film adaptation article

2010-02-19T13:46:00.006Z

After being incensed last year that someone should choose to make a film of Watchmen, I resolved to write a fairly chunky piece looking at the process of comic-to-film adaptations. It took a while for me to work out what I was trying to say, but it's done now and I think you should read it here on the Readers of the Lost Art site.

I know comments aren't active, but if you know me, do feel free to discuss this in person, I think it's a pretty interesting topic. If you don't know me, maybe you could discuss it with people you do know who read comics and/or watch films. Or not, I mean who am I tell you what to do, I don't even know you, honestly the presumption of some people, I do apologise...

2009, bah

2010-01-06T18:38:00.008Z

For reports on the goings-on in the world of comics in the North East of England in 2009, I'd suggest that interested persons investigate the blogs of the members of the Paper Jam Comics Collective (links on the right of the Paper Jam Comics Collective's blog). Many of these bright and wondrous people report on the myriad exciting and excellent things they have been up to in 2009 and look forward to the many exciting and excellent things they will be getting up to in 2010.

Things roll a bit different here at Oscillating Brow Stuff.

Highlights of 2009!
2009 was yet another year of pathetically poor output, where, with tedious predictability, ennui and inefficiency allowed the innumerable banalities of life to crush any spluttering remnants of creative potential, leaving only melancholy, misanthropy and self-loathing. The few shoddy things that did get done in the year served only to highlight what a pointless, useless, worthless excuse-for-a-human-being created them, proficient only in wasting a miserable nonexistence doing nothing.

Predictions for 2010!
Worse.

Happy New Decade Y'all!

Take that, world of webcomics!

2009-12-23T14:54:00.004Z

The unstoppable Paper Jam Comics Collective have taken over Dennis J Reinmuller's Tumble and Fall, almost certainly the finest webcomic about a man repeatedly tumbling and indeed falling in three panels in various situations. Despite the niche format, it's kind of ingenious and has a sense of poetry and pathos in its absurdity.

To comprehend, start at the start here. To view the Paper Jam takeover, begin here. To sully your eyes with the Oscillating Brow effort, go here.

Take that world of comics publishing!

2009-11-23T17:29:00.004Z

The Paper Jam crew were at Leeds' Thought Bubble Festival. It was ace. I was rubbishly epic-fail-tastic at both getting to panels AND helping out on the stall, but had a diggety dang good laugh. Official press release from the Jammers here.

Tony Horne makes you yawn [Take that world of prose publishing pt.2]

2009-10-26T16:54:00.007Z

Paper Jam was at the Durham Book Festival. It was quite a lot like the Whitley Bay shinding a week earlier, and although we made probably a comparable number of sales, the day was somewhat more disappointing because the potential to flog stuff (and more importantly talk to people about comics) was substantially undermined by the fact that most stalls, including ours, were situated in the same hall as the author talks - and when authors were talking, punters were disinclined to come and have a wander round (and those that did, we couldn't talk to).

We didn't want to hear Tony 'local radio personality' Horne try and flog his book about (literally) taking a family holiday to Australia, we wanted to talk to people about comics, dagnamit. To be fair to Mr. Horne, that's what he and the other authors were there for, it was the setup that was at fault. Regardless of how interesting the readings/talks were, it was simply unfortunate that they couldn't have been in a separate room to the stalls.

On the topic of authors, special props to local author of 9987, Nik Jones - his book sounded a little too grisly for my tastes but he seemed a nice chap and bought a copy of something from us, possibly Space Monkey.

Anyway, a few sales are a few sales and a day sketching is never a day wasted. Anyway, onward to Thoughtbubble.

Space Monkey launched into the cosmos of AWESOMENESS

2009-10-23T13:25:00.006+01:00

Ladies and gentlemen, the latest Paper Jam Comics Collective anthology, Space Monkey, is now available (stupendous cover image above by Dan Gilmore).

It will be sort of officially launched at the Durham Book Festival's Book Fete on Saturday October 24th (where Paper Jam will have a stall selling all their wares). You can also get it from the Travelling Man comic shop in Newcastle and hopefully other places (such as via online magic) soon.

It's the group's first attempt at something aimed predominantly at youngsters and is an excellent and entertaining read for persons of any age.

The Oscillating Brow contribution to this fine publication is a one-pager called Dinosaur Nigel. The protagonist is a dinosaur who is called Nigel.

Take that, world of prose publishing!

2009-10-19T09:52:00.004+01:00

Paper Jam Comics Collective was at Whitley Bay's WordPlay festival. It was subtitled as being a festival about the written and spoken word. No mention of pictures, but we brought 'em. The visitors mostly had no idea of what to make of our enclave of sequential art amongst stalls of local prose and poetry publishers, but we enlightened them. Words and pictures, chumps! Take that!

Sketches and suchlike can be found here.

Paper Jam on tour

2009-10-14T16:19:00.005+01:00

Yo peeps! Paper Jam Comics Collective will be representin' at several upcoming things, namely:

Whitley Bay WORDplay book festival

Durham Book Festival

Leeds' Thought Bubble comic convention

Be there or be square, fools!

A Local review for local people

2009-08-20T14:11:00.009+01:00

Should you wish to read a review of the rather good Local by Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly, I've written one for the Readers of the Lost Art website. Check it out here.

It's moderately in-depth, but a little dry and lacking in humour (the review, not the book - the book is... well, just read the review, fool!).

There are a bunch of other reviews up there by the Readers of the Lost Art crew, including a few by me, although I must shamefully admit that this is my first for quite a while.

Most notable of my reviews is quite a large review/analysis/rant about Marvel Civil War specifically, and more generally, the problems of mainstream superheroics - it can be found here. If you disagree with it, you're wrong.

How Bob Marley likes sandwiches

2009-08-17T15:31:00.004+01:00

The comic-producing juggernaut that is the Paper Jam Comics Collective have a new blog thing whereby the most notable lunatic products of the 24-minute-comic scribbling that occurs at meetings will be posted regularly. It is cunningly known as Paper Jams. It features some fine material. And also some from Oscillating Brow.

The Investigatist Arrives

2009-07-17T08:39:00.005+01:00

Ladies and gentlemen, the first proper Oscillating Brow comic is sort of finished.

Tales of Extraordinariness #1: The Investigatist is now available for purchase.

It's eight pages (well, six excluding covers) of spectacular (well, shoddy) artwork telling an exciting (well, tedious) story featuring the Investigatist. He investigates stuff! Like crimes and what-have-you!

It may be available at Travelling Man Newcastle for a mere (well, outrageously overpriced) 30p.

Hopefully Tales of Extraordinariness will be a vaguely regular kind of thing.

Things that have happened previously ...and that

2009-07-13T14:35:00.008+01:00

So, although this blog is kind of new, 'Oscillating Brow' has been around a while. This is mainly representative of an utter failure to produce even the shortest comic to be photocopied and produced under this imprint.

However, Oscillating Brow work is out there! The Paper Jam Comics Collective (which has been going for around two and a half years, based in the Travelling Man comic shop in Newcastle) has put out five (count 'em, FIVE) anthologies and Oscillating Brow material has appeared in them all. For those interested, the anthologies have been:

...And That - The legendary original. Made for Free Comic Book Day 2007, about 70 copies were made and all were given away free. Now out of print, though it can be found online.
Halloween ...And That - spooky Halloween themed stuff. Quite nice production values. A few hundred were printed so there are still some available.
24 Minutes ...And That - based around a perennial favourite activity of the group (a variation on '24 hour comics', doing comics in, yes, 24 minutes, mostly one page on a randomly-set theme), it was the product of one hectic evening's activity. Surprisingly quite good. Was the first to be launched with a party (bands, cake, and comics goodness). There may be a few of the second print run still knocking around, or maybe not.
You Will Have To Wait ...And That - a rather obtuse theme, based on odd objects and the phrase 'you will have to wait', but a nice collection. Another tremendous launch party occurred for this one. I think it is out of print.
Robots ...And That - the current publication, an absolute monster: more pages, better quality work, a larger-than-A5 square format, a giant launch event at the Star & Shadow Cinema. On the shelf right now. If you are ever in Newcastle and read comics, you should go and buy this a.s.a.p.

There will be more of these and hopefully at least a few pitifully tiny comics made entirely by Oscillating Brow will be out soon.

A Bold New Exciting Thing About Stuff!

2009-06-24T19:56:00.003+01:00

Would be tremendous wouldn't it? Alas this blog is not that thing. It is another kind of thing, a tedious thing that is not sure what it is doing, but will link to things and clutter the internet up. And talk up projects that are unlikely to come into existence.

Be nice, please.