Violent Reaches 18 – and is still kicking

By John Freeman on September 2, 2010

Issue 18 of Longtime indie comics publisher Jay Eales anthology Violent! is now available to download here for absolutely nothing.

“There are no celebrities on the cover, I’m afraid,” warns Jay, “Unless you count artist Kev Levell’s homage to Carlos Ezquerra’s notorious cover that helped to get Action banned back in the Seventies…”

Violent! was born as something of an Action homage zine back in 1999, launching at the first Bristol Festival. “It seems only fitting that we should pay tribute to Grandaddy Action now Violent! is entering its second decade of life,” says Jay, “albeit in a new PDF format incarnation.”

For a free comic with no ads to cover costs, this issue features an impressive array of talent, not least of which is some truly stunning work for the humour-adventure strip Space Dude by Darren Douglas. (Collections of Space Dude strips are available from lulu.com). It’s a strip that may offend some but very tongue in cheek and Darren’s art continues to astonish.

Other creators in the issue, whose work also shouldn’t be sniffed at include Jay, Chris Askham, Paul McCaffrey, Curt Sibling and many other fine talents. So what have you got to lose (except, perhaps, your very sanity…) by downloading this free comic now and checking it out for yourself?

• More about Violent! Issue 18 (or download the PDF direct from here)

• If you missed Violent! #17, go here.