Comic

Editor: Daniel Humphry Art Director: Steve Leard

The eleventh issue of Off Life is intriguingly eclectic, with cartoons critiquing consumerism (with chocolate covered rice cakes as the culprits), and the ‘war on terror’ transcribed to a war on magicians. There is a variety of different approaches from the contributors, and it’s encouraging to see unusual topics investigated in this form.

The individual comics are often untilted, taking the reader straight into the story with no preconceptions. Some are observational – such as a possible case of mistaken identity in a post office queue or reasons for shaving off a beard via the effect of inane radio DJ chatter. Others are a bit stranger, including one story tackling the moment before death.

There’s an interesting frankly-expressed interview with Ed Piskor, creator of Hip Hop Family Tree: “I’ve been gambling my whole life on comics being a respectable thing.” And Jack Teagle writes on illustrators being too liberal with their influences: “…it’s important… to set yourself apart from your peers”.

Off Life is available free of charge, and I can think of no reason why any lover of narrative art wouldn’t want to pick up a copy. Or read online.

Off Life are keen to feature new, up-and-coming creators and you can submit for their next issue here.