Off Life is a new magazine published in Bristol which boldly asserts itself as “the UK’s only street press comic anthology”. This month sees issue number one of this beautifully-crafted publication which collects stories from leading indie comic talent, to be left casually lying around and picked up for free in bars, cafes, shops and galleries.
I picked up my copy yesterday in Mud Dock Deli and an interview with Kofi Annan in the Times magazine was soon relegated to second place as I was transported through Off Life to a world where children make their parents out of birdcages, cats converse with lemons, and a lady octopus carouses with a deep sea diver much to the chagrin of her moustachioed husband.
The style of Off Life is delightfully quirky and offbeat. Each artist brings their own take to proceedings, with one of the joys having no idea what to expect when turning the page to reveal the next story.
For comic book aficionados, there is also an interview with Tom Gauld, a comic artist who wrote best-selling graphic novel, Goliath, and is a regular cartoonist in the Guardian.
Off Life editor Daniel Humphrey writes that he hopes the new magazine will be “a stepping stone to all the works of genius out there in four-colour print”.
“Our aim is to provide a platform for up-and-coming talent while opening comics to a whole new audience. Sure Spider-man is fun and Wolverine is tough but at their best comics are as smart, adult and culturally relevant as any novel, film or classical art.”
Interesting – must find a copy