Torpedo 6: The Bullet

The latest output from those avian simians at Falcon vs. Monkey is Torpedo 6, aka The Bullet. It’s chockers with good comic love (and the occasional short story) by many excellent comickal types from around the globe.

Standouts for me include Tim Molloy’s effectively silent strips with their alien-heiroglyphic dialogue, Mandy Ord’s autobio tale about a rat in the toilets at her work, Peader Thomas’s variation-on-a-theme yes/no/maybe tryptich that delivers an excellent punchline, Oslo Davis’s “Places Where A Couple of Fighting Dogs is Really Annoying”, and Paul O’Connell’s three strips about the delusional cowboy called Johnnny Three-Ns.

I’m happy to say that I’ve got two thingos in this ish that allow me to rub published shoulders with the lovelies above. My bits are comics based on two of my poems: an untitled bizzo about uncles and drugs all sketched up by Michael Fikaris (above), and “I Must Destroy the Space-Whale”, ably artified by Neale Blanden (below). Kudos and muchos gracias to Neale and Michael for making such pretty pix to accompany my words. I bathe in the full strength of the reflected glory that comes from their art.

The Bullet also comes with a gorgeous little pocket-sized full-colour comic supplement at no extra etc. The whole collection, both coloured and black-and-whited, comes across as a pretty dark-humoured endeavour focusing heavily on death and madness, with very little in the way of positive affirmations or happy endings. Though I prefer my entertaiment light-hearted these days, I can’t complain too much – my comics fit right in with all of the other borderline misanthropic work on offer. In some ways the tone – and the level of experimentalism – reminds me a little bit of those old 1980s RAW anthologies.

You can pick up your own The Bullet – catch it in your teeth if you feel like it, even – over at The House of Falcons and Monkeys for the stonkin’ price of only fifteen Australian bollarz, which works out to very little at all per comic. Which is the kind of price I know you like. And I know this because I’ve been spying on you. But I meant well, I really did. Honest.