Stereo Comics   +  Rich Johnston

The only David Beckham-related post I'll ever make

I'm a sucker for jam comics at the best of time, even when they inevitably leave me feeling unsatisfied afterwards. The latest to take my fancy is Rich Johnston's CIVIL WAR parody, CIVIL WARDROBE. It's a thin premise, but the list of artist talent contributing is impressive (Kaare Andrews, Darick Robertson, Ashley Wood - whose Deaddevil page is pretty sweet, too, Lea Hernandez, Mike Netzer, Frazer Irving, etc), Johnston is at his best when being straight-up funny, and it features this great page by Edmund Bagwell, a man already praised at this very blog twice in recent times, alongside BL reader Dan's speculation about Bagwell having a secret past in the biz under another name.

This image is great on a couple of levels, not least because it really does sum up the way U.S. comic writers regard the U.K. - as defined by WWII, Benny Hill, punk rock, faddy pop, ill-defined mysticism and football hooliganism. Everything bar bad teeth and awful food, I suppose. And Bagwell's Mike Golden/Chris Sprouse-y stylings manage to make that weedy egomaniac David Beckham look heroic. Some going.
This Bagwell guy is the next-big-thing just waiting to break out.