In Review: Papercuts and Inkstains Issue 2

Papercuts & Inkstains #2 - Cover

Publisher: Madius Comics
Out: Now

It was great to see a quick follow up on the first issue of this anthology by the people at Madius Comics. Issue 2 is a step up in quality and presents three excellent short stories in this horror/comedy anthology series.

Papercuts & Inkstains mixes elements of horror, science fiction, humour and the slightly absurd, and the strips in Issue Two are created by Robin Jones and Michael Sambrook, splitting writing duties between the stories within and features art from new artist Rory Donald, Jim Lavery (Zarjaz, FutureQuake) and the return of Mike Smith (Profits of Doom #01!)

Papercuts & Inkstains #2 - Cast AdriftCast Adrift
Written by Rob Jones
Art by Rory Donald

‘Dontvom, Dontvom, Dontvom.’

A deep space rescue mission goes all Aliens/Creepozoids when the stllement is discovered missing and dead. Illustrated with heavy black and white inks this has a really great 1980s B movie horror vibe with added current era snark. It adds a sting to the last panel and looks great.

Robin Jones is a former columnist for Inter-Comics.com and The Cult Den who decided one day to attempt to write some comics. His writing credentials include Papercuts and Inkstains #01 and his work is due to appear in upcoming issues of FutureQuake, Fifth Dimensions Comics (along with Mike Sambrook) and in various other projects from Madius Comics. Rob also letters other people’s comics.

Rory Donald is a North Cornwall-based freelance comic book artist and illustrator. Drawing under the umbrella of Reach Illustration, Rory has enjoyed various successes with his artistic abilities; large billboards for Greenpeace’s 40th anniversary at Glastonbury to book illustrations for titles such as Pigs Might Surf and The X Tractor. However, Rory’s true love is with comics. He is the first to admit at giggling like a kid at Christmas when his style was recently likened to none other than that of Mike Mignola (and who wouldn’t?) who among others such as Fabio Moon, Gabriel Ba, Frank Miller and J.Romita Jr (to name but a few) are big influences. Rory has recently received his certificate of distinction from the London Art College for passing the Sci-Fi & Fantasy Illustration course and is currently working on numerous projects that include another exciting collaboration with Robin Jones & Michael Sambrook of which he wont discuss under fear of assassination as well as various other creator owned pieces.

Papercuts & Inkstains #2 - Together Forever

Together Forever
Written by Mike Sambrook
Art by Jim Lavery

A simple missing persons case in Chester turns a little hairy (literally) when the missing person gets bitten by a suburban werewolf. This is probably my favourite story in the book and has some really well presented storytelling techniques. It also features the words ‘Jeff’ and ‘Goldblum’ all in one panel. Transformation and the family unit are themes in this gore ridden soap opera. The Howling meets Emmerdale!

Michael Sambrook “sells fish to bridge hobos and can usually be found huddled in the shadows, clutching a leather bound book to his chest, mumbling about the coming darkness”, according to the folk at Madius. This is his first comic strip.

Jim Lavery (https://jimlavery.wordpress.com) has worked on such comics as Zarjaz, Futurequake and his own comics, including Grail and Detective Werewolf. Follow him on twitter @jimlavery1.

Papercuts & Inkstains #2 - Profits of DoomProfits of Doom
Written by Robin Jones and Michael Sambrook
Lithographs by Mike Smith

The crap satanic wizards of Issue One return in this the last of the three stories. Messing it up at every turn, these wannabe Lovecraftian chavs try and go all A-Team on a horned female demon.

“She looks like the demon love child of Nora Batty and Thora Hird…”

The plan ends badly, of course, with the invasion of the mortal plane by a Deer-like demon riding a wave of crazy. This strip needs to run and run and shows an excellent turn of humour by Neil, Robin and ‘lithographer’ Mike. More please.

Mike Smith was hatched, we’re reliably informed, from an egg, then enrolled into ninja school shortly after. After what sounds to us an extremely unlikely series of events involving 2000AD and Simon Pegg, he was forced to get a 9-5 job. Slowly dying as each year, day, hour, minute and second passed him by, mike discovered a social media site called Twitter, where he’s discovered many other creators who are trying to escape their mundane lives.

Papercuts & Inkstains #2 is on sale soon: for more information check out www.facebook.com/MadiusComics or contact the guys on Twitter @MadiusComics

Many thanks for reading.



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