Comics / Press Releases

Broken Frontier Publishes First Small Press Yearbook

By The Editor
May 5, 2016 - 17:23

Launched on Friday April 29th at London’s Gosh! Comics, the Broken Frontier Small Press Yearbook 2016 celebrates the work of BF Editor-in-Chief Andy Oliver’s ‘Six UK Small Press Creators to Watch in 2015’ - Rozi Hathaway, Jess Milton, Danny Noble, Emma Raby, Alice Urbino and Adam Vian. The book is now available for purchase in North America and Europe.

A natural extension of a year’s worth of dedicated coverage of these six very talented creators in Oliver’s popular ‘Small Pressganged’ feature at Broken Frontier, the Yearbook is the ultimate expression of the column’s mission of “unearthing the gems of the small press”, and of bringing the work of new voices in self-publishing he has championed to a far wider audience.

Each of the six creators has contributed an 8-10 page story on the theme of “breaking frontiers” and interpreted that broad starting point with their own distinctive takes. The book also features back-up stories by a number of established names in UK indie comics who started in small press including Gareth Brookes (The Black Project), Gill Hatcher (The Beginner’s Guide to Being Outside), Jessica Martin (Elsie Harris Picture Palace), Mike Medaglia (One Year Wiser), EdieOP (Maleficium), Owen D. Pomery (Between the Billboards), Alex Potts (A Quiet Disaster), Paul B. Rainey (There’s No Time Like the Present) and Donya Todd (Buttertubs), as well as guest contributions from Rebecca Bagley and Kim Clements.

Says Oliver, “The prime philosophy of the Small Press Yearbook is to provide a promotional showcase for last year’s participants in our ‘Six to Watch’ initiative. To that end we’re sending out a significant proportion of the print run for free to selected publishers, micropublishers, and comics commentators as we seek to raise the profile of 2015’s half dozen stars-in-the-making across the medium.”

Oliver continues, “Rozi, Jess, Danny, Emma, Alice and Adam have very diverse stylistic approaches to the page but what they all share is an innate understanding of the storytelling possibilities of the form and an eloquent fluency in the pure language of comics.”

“Broken Frontier have demonstrated an ambition to elevate not only the form of comics, but the different people who are exploring it” notes Simon Moreton (SMOO Comics, Plans We Made, Minor Leagues) in his Foreword for the book. That aim of active championing of deserving new practitioners is reflected in the cover price of the Broken Frontier Small Press Yearbook which retails at just £6.00 for 100 pages (83 of story) in colour and black and white, in order to make its contents as accessible to as wide a readership as possible.

The Broken Frontier Small Press Yearbook is sold here for Europe and North America.

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12