Sneak Preview – Sliced Quarterly Issue #2

Sliced (Quarterly) issue #2 - Cover

Edited and Designed by Ken Reynolds
Cover by Lukasz Kowalczuk

Contributors – Chris Sides, Max Meier, Ken Reynolds, Peter Johnson, Freja Steele, Lukasz Kowalczuk, Kathryn Briggs, David Thomas, Denis Vermese, Ben Peter Johnson, Daniel Ableev, Bob Schroeder, Saffron Knight, Simon Mackie, Team B Comics, Icconu James and Tom Merke

The Book:Sliced Quarterly is an experimental comic anthology. We give a home to stories that want to push the boundaries of the comic book narrative. We publish ‘slice of life’ stories told in extraordinary ways.”

The Preview: I was lucky enough to get a preview copy of both this issue and the first one. Editor Ken Reynolds has, once again, delivered on his promise of the ordinary getting a twisted retelling. Both he and all the contributors to Sliced Quarterly use moments that occur in our day-to-day lives and the social media whirl that surrounds us and demonstrates that they are not all they seem at first glance.

I picked out a couple of my favourites from the nine stories in this issue…

 

Sliced #2 - Uncolorform by Lukasz Kowalczuk

Uncolorform
by Lukasz Kowalczuk

Set against photos of 1970s London, this is a colourful and violent subversion of books and movies like ‘The Football Factory’ or ‘I.D.‘ I have been a fan of Lukasz’s crazy frenetic visuals since I read his ongoing Vreckless Vrestlers. He manages to satirise an area that has in recent years had a unnecessarily glamorous edge added to it. The story veers off in all kinds of strangely hallucinogenic and nightmarish ways. Watch out for this guy (but mostly, don’t tell him where you live…)

He was also responsible for the brilliant cover for this second volume.

• Find more out about Lukasz on his Facebook page here

 

Sliced #2 - Self(ie) ObsessedSelf(ie) Obsessed
Script by Chris Sides
Art by Max Meier
Design by Ken Reynolds

That Chris Sides is a clever b******. Not only does he manage to tell a comic story through the medium of internet photos and their comments, but he also manages to sum up one of the most annoying fashions currently in the world in just two words!

“Selfie Obsessed” managed to communicate so much about the air-headed, vacuous, bloody annoying nature of the crap that we see every day when like crack cocaine addicts we turn on social media. It is done with some great twisted visuals from Max and a flow of design by Ken that they could easily make a coffee table book for bitter and grumpy old b******* like me.  Nicely done, gents!

• Find more about Chris at www.close2immortality.com or on Twitter @Sidesy1982

• Find some more samples of Max’s and Ken’s work at the Sliced Quarterly page on Facebook here

 

Sliced #2 - MisenabymMisenabym
Script by Daniel Ableev
Art by Bob Schroeder

This is one of the strips that absolutely dazzled me. It is so good it could have been cut straight from Stray Toasters. The story transforms around the character and we see that everything is a narrative created by a pen, some colour and especially a crackingly timed bit of good old-fashioned swearing. I’d love to see more by these creators.

• Find more out about Daniel here

• There are some more examples of Bob’s art over at the Sliced (Quarterly) page here

 

 

Sliced #2 - I Am

Art from ‘I am’ written by Ben Peter Johnson, with art by Freja Steele

Editor Ken Reynolds, who is the force of nature behind this project, also sent the following through to downthetubes. Have a read if you are a budding creator:

A new ‘Small press preview’ section is launched in this issue. We are including a five-page preview of an independent one-shot or series. This is an effort to support indie creators that are trying to promote their work.

We’d love to hear from creators that might like to be featured in the future. We prefer slice of life story-telling, but anything that fits into our broad experimental remit will be considered.

If you fancy submitting some work then pop over to www.slicedquarterly.co.uk/submissions

Big things are happening at Sliced and you can tell that they are pushing the boundaries of much that is currently found in the UK Small Press scene.

Ken has also reconsidered the way Sliced will be published. Originally, he planned to begin charging for a digital copy from Issue #2 as a way of funding an annually collected print edition. He has reconsidered this model and decided to keep the digital release free to read, and then crowd fund the collection each year. This is in an effort to give the contributors maximum exposure, and not limiting the potential audience by charging an ‘admission fee’.

• You can pop over to www.slicedquarterly.co.uk to find more out about this really interesting project | Find Sliced Quartery on Facebook page here | Follow them on Twitter @SlicedQuarterly

• You can find Ken himself at www.kenreynoldsdesign.co.uk or Follow him on Twitter @kenreynoldsdesign

Read the downthetubes review of Sliced Quarterly #1

Many thanks for reading.



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