Friday 7 December 2012

Frontline - The SP Catalogue #1

Your Alternative Comics Distributor

Summer 2006. 6¼"x9⅝". £1.50.
28 pages. Card cover; B&W contents.
Smallzone Distribution

Cover includes reproductions of the covers of 10th Muse/Ezra (Arcana Press) #1 (2006), Dead By Dawn Quarterly (Scar Comics) #2 (Mar 2006), Starship Troopers: Blaze Of Glory (Markosia), Shadowmancer (Markosia) vol.1 (May 2006), Kolchak: The Night Stalker Chronicles (Moonstone) (2006) and Sherlock Holmes Mysteries (Moonstone) vol.2 (2006).

Contents:

.2 Frontline Users Guide
.3 Extra Reader Order Form - Summer 2006
.5 Comics Listings
26 Doris Danger advertisement
27 Special Offer For Retailers
28 The New Age Of UK Comics Is Here in-house advertisement

Official Website

One day these ephemeral catalogs will be considered important enough to document, though for the moment it seems they are thought tertiary to comic collectors, dumped in four-for-a-pound boxes, or worse... There is a great deal more American-style comics than more traditional photocopied small press titles, though the variety is wide enough that the few superhero titles included don't draw undue attention to themselves. The most fascinating aspect of this selection of comics is the number of licensed titles and characters from the public domain - all the while keeping the completely original material visible enough.

The only question in my mind after perusing the list of comics and graphic novels was why so many American-published titles were included. The differences between this and Previews is distinct, with less emphasis on allegedly "hot" comics, and a concrete focus on the merits of the titles - the Spotlight features which pepper the listings may have superficial similarities, though I would much rather see more done to support and promote the highly idiosyncratic individual creators who are printing their own material and distributing the work themselves, which this goes some way to doing.

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