BROKEN FRONTIERS SIX TO WATCH 2023

Andy Oliver has selected his annual “Six to Watch” for comics news and culture website Broken Frontier’s mentorship programme.

“our supremely talented ‘Six to Watch’ artists have gone on to be published by such luminaries as Avery Hill Publishing, BOOM! Studios, Faber, Graphic Universe, Icon Books, Image Comics, Koguchi Press, Myriad Editions, Quindrie Press, Rebellion, SelfMadeHero, and more. Seriously, if you want to discover tomorrow’s comics stars today then this annual feature is the one for you!”

Names of particular interest would be Becca “Beck” Kubrick and Ed Firth. Some NSFW images on Ed’s site to watch out for if you’re looking at this on your morning commute.

Kubrick’s work is all teen angst, queer themes and horror. Recent comic Meat4Burgers is a “YA+ slice-of-life-esoteric-teen-sci-fi-horror. It’s a 20 page, self published comic that follows Trace, a teen who wakes up in fast food restaurant, VAL-U-BURGER. They have no idea who they are or how they got there, they’re name probably isn’t even Trace- that’s just what the nametag says - and the lunch rush is looming.”

Kubrick’s latest effort the as yet unpublished graphic novel “Dead Girls”. “Dead Girls is a comedy horror YA graphic novel I am currently building a pitch for. It is a love letter (or maybe a death threat) to teen scream, slasher films.”

Ed Firth is the creator behind the extremely popular gay sex drama comic Horny and High. Think Queer as Folk meets Tom of Finland meets chem-sex. I pushed for Ed to win the Observer Graphic Short Story Prize in last years competition which I was on the judging panel for. He managed to secure the joint runner up spot with his uncanny and hallucinatory 5 pager about being targeted by a sex offender in a rural community, which you can find, here.

Lot’s of writing about Ed’s work online as it seems to have struck a chord with the community. Here’s a deep dive from Means Happy.