Peter Duncan has written on my comic Berserkotron over at the Splank! comics blog.
Have a read here.
"Berserkotron is a collection of strips which David put together for the APA, "Shiot Crock". For the uninitiated an APA or, most usually, Amateur Press Alliance, is a publication put together by a group of people who, on a regular basis, produce and, usually, print their own magazines or 'zines'. The zines are send to a 'Central Mailer' or CM, who collates the zines and distributes anything from 20-50 copies of the combined contribution to each of the members of the APA.
APAs or apa's, as they are often known, come in many styles and cover a huge range of subjects. They have a long history in fantasy fiction. The horror writer, H P Lovecraft, was a member of the United Amateur Press Association, from 1914 and comic fandom really started with CAPA-APA which featured Comic writers Roy Thomas, Mark Evanier and Wendy Pini among its membership. Other comics based APAs have included APA Five whose members have included Frank Miller and Concrete creator Paul Chadwick.
At the moment I'm aware of at least one comic and one music APA that are active and healthy on this side of the Atlantic. I'm sure there are more.
Shiot Crock was a little different from most APAs. It referred to itself as an Amateur Press Anthology and had a rotating EC or (Editor /Collator) rather than a Central Mailer. It combined mini-comics from up to 40 creators an issue and was distributed only to contributors. Whereas the lifeblood of most APAs were the comments sections where each member would discuss the previous issue, Shiot Crock members used the Comics Journal Forum to discuss their zines.
Berserkotron collects all of David's contributions for Shiot Crock plus a few more strips which finish off the story. Like his previous comics, David's work in this comic is obviously a labour of love.
The story, which is half workplace soap and half killer-robot adventure, made me laugh and kept me entertained throughout.
His art is functional and adequate, but not what would be regarded as being of professional standard. And, really, it’s not intended to be. I’m growing into an appreciation for what this and titles like it are all about. This is the punk rock of modern comics. Ok, maybe you can't draw well enough to get work for Marvel or DC or 2000AD. What the hell, you've got something to say, 'just do it'.
David has a story to tell, and its one I enjoyed and could really appreciate the work he'd put into it. I hope a few of you will take a look at his blog and see what he is doing, you never know, you might fancy giving some of his comics a try."
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