Comic creator Mal Earl is currently in the process of editing a new comics anthology with a difference. Running between 200 to 300 pages per issue, The Jigsaw Review is an A4 format, black and white collection of sequential art both old and new, from creators dedicated to the comics art form, many of whose works have been unseen for over thirty years.
A showcase for the new, and repository for older work from an artistic collective whose contribution to the early independent comics movement is impossible to overstate, the anthology includes work from the likes of (in alphabetical order) Jason Asala, John Bagnall, Bob Lynch, Denny Derbyshire, David Metcalfe-Carr, Ed Pinsent, and Chris Webster.
Issue 1 is scheduled for release through Mal’s Gweni Press imprint on 1st July 2025 – more details here on Mal’s website.
“John, Ed, Bob and Denny were all frequently seen in the pages of Paul Gravett’s ESCAPE magazine, and Chris self published Malus, one of the finest pieces of comic work seen in any sphere in my humble opinion,” Mal notes. “Dave published his respected anthology Slices, and Jason Asala’s wonderful series, Poe ran for 24 issues from Sirius Comics, from 1997 to 2000.
“It is an honour to be curating this series of both reprint and new work from some of the finest, yet under appreciated creatives in the small press sphere.”
Lured back into the fields of art, comics and illustration in 2012, now retired, self taught Mal Earl resides in the Western Lake District of England with his wife and daughter. He’s stacked up an impressive list of work in the subsequent years. His personal projects have included designs based on the graphic sensibilities of Weimar Period Berlin, and a print series capturing the mood and excitement of the Jazz greats. His comic work has appeared in publications alongside such luminaries as Bill Sienkiewicz, David Lloyd, Glenn Fabry, Marc Hempel and Shaky Kane, and he has been a regular contributor to David Lloyd’s online anthology comic, Aces Weekly with his creator-owned serials, “Bullhawk”, “Scars”, “The Bridge” and “JIGSAW”.
In 2017, in collaboration with Manchester’s underground icon Kermit Leveridge, he presented the duo’s ‘graphic poem’ Lies and Other Fools as a 48-page full colour book – the culmination of a process which also included the production of art for a vinyl release of the poem read by the late, Howard Marks. He also produced art for Greg Wilson’s Super Weird Substance and the 14 Hour ‘Happening’ at Liverpool’s Florrie on the 1st April 2017, with the legendary Alan Moore.
From November 2018 until 2019 he exhibited his digital prints at the Barrow Dock Museum with the South Lakes Art Collective. In 2019, he was asked to contribute to the anthology comic The ‘77, for which he created the story, “Prodigal“, following that with painted covers for an aborted series of Western novels by US publishers Wolfpack in 2020. Through 2021, he worked on various projects, primarily a series of poetry pamphlets, including a collaboration with poet Sam Smith.
Mal’s creative interests are diverse. He enjoys writing as much as illustrating, poetry as much as pulp; but comics are his abiding passion. Consolidating these interests into 2022 his projects have begun to concentrate on the little explored medium of ‘Graphic Poetry’.
He was asked to contribute work for the San Diego-based “The Mission”; for which he produced a three page strip interpretation of the poem “The Stars”, among others. 2023 saw the publication of more graphic poetry, with Will Vigar, and the self-penned urban surreality of Navarro Spar; and, in addition to working on The Jigsaw Review and other self-published works, he has recently completed art on a new full-length SF western, “They Call Her Trinity“, for Alan Holloway and Ed Doyle’s Sentinel project, a crowdfunder launching soon; and created a “poetry strip” for Peter Duncan’s upcoming Faces of War project.
• Mal Earl is online at malearl.com
- About the Author
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
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