Electric Sheep Magazine’s comic Jubilee

By Alex Fitch on April 14, 2014

Image: Electric Sheep Comics by Paul O’Connell, Howard Hardiman, Mark Stafford, Hannah Berry, Andrew Cheverton, Joe Decie and Richy K. Chandler

Previously a print periodical from Wallflower Press (Summer 2008 – Winter 2009), Electric Sheep is a cult and world cinema review magazine that has existed before and since as a website, carrying on many of the features of the print version. These include a different theme per issue, interviews, features and one review a month of a DVD / Blu-Ray release of a classic or recent film in comic strip format.

Excerpt from Blue is the Warmest Colour review by Sally-Anne Hickman

The latest comic strip review on the site – of Derek Jarman’s Jubilee by University of Brighton sequential design student Lee Christien – was commissioned to coincide with a season of Jarman’s work at the BFI in London, however it was an appropriate choice for the website as the review was also the 50th web comic to appear on www.electricsheepmagazine.com, making it a golden jubilee for the strip as well.

Excerpt from Jubilee review by Lee Christien

Comic strip reviews featured in Electric Sheep have showcased a great variety of small press creators, up and coming talent and established cartoonists, with reviews of films ranging from the incredibly obscure to the more familiar. Strips have been metatextual, such as Sally-Anne Hickman and Douglas Noble drawing a comic about a film based on a comic, Paul O’Connell reviewing 3D films as 3D comics which look better when viewed through red and blue ‘anaglyph’ glasses and Andrew Cheverton having his daughter guest star in one of his reviews.

Excerpt from The Fly review by Andrew Cheverton

Often the reviewers draw themselves into their comics, documenting their experience of watching the movie in question, while others have taken on someone else’s persona, such as Paul O’Connell having Doctor Jacobi from Twin Peaks as his reviewer, while David O’Connell (no relation) took on the persona of the Queen Mother for his!

Extract from The Creature from the Black Lagoon 3D review by Paul O Connell

Dan Lester is the site’s most prolific review in comic strip format, with lurid titles such as Naked Bullet and Big Tits Zombie under his belt and there are many more strips we can recommend, such as Hannah Berry’s Where the sidewalk ends, Chris Doherty’s Plague of the Zombies, David Baillie on Boudu Saved from Drowning, Adam Cadwell on George Romero’s Martin, Julia Scheele on Dr. Jeckyll and Sister Hyde, Karen Rubins on The Hidden Fortress, Paul Rainey on Cargo and the site’s most ambitious strip, John Spelling’s five page, animated review of The Twilight Zone.